Use of Social Media in Marketing new Products and Services

Technology advancement provides businesses with numerous opportunities for improving the way they carry out their activities. One of the effective tools is social media marketing that has transformed the way businesses interact with customers and stakeholders in the industry. In order to have a maximum positive effect of social media on marketing activities, it is important that proper strategies are adapted and relevant steps taken in order to promote the positive use of social media. It means that the management of the business should empower employees with the skills they require for marketing new products. Social media can be both a good and bad place for marketing. On the one hand, it is good because, through it, a company can scale up its brand awareness and reach out to many people. On the other hand, it can be bad because there are many risks that the business might face including infringement of copyright and leak of sensitive information to competitors. To avoid this scenario, any market player that wants to use social media must train employees responsible for posting and re-posting information on the platforms. The process of implementing the study will use quantitative data collection in an identified business organization. The data to be collected will concern the use of social media in marketing products and will be done with selected participants. A questionnaire and an interview will be used for achieving the research objectives. The findings of the study will be used to make a conclusion concerning the best way that businesses can employ in marketing products and services through social media.

Keywords: social media, marketing, data collection, interview, businesses

Introduction

Social networks and other developing media are shaping the way modern businesses carry out their activities. One of the most influenced areas is the marketing approaches that companies use, to reach out to their customers. Nowadays, it is common to find businesses operating on social networks for marketing their products and interacting with clients. However, it should be noted that using social media for these purposes also presents some challenges in terms of the skills required of employees, additional competition, and extra finances to be invested in advertisement campaigns. In order to overcome these issues, businesses must ensure that their staff is sufficiently trained, and there are enough resources to implement the latest marketing technology (Kaplan & Haenlein 2010, p. 243). This research proposal focuses on the use of social networks by a company for marketing a product. The study will be undertaken in a fast developing business selling fashion clothes and accessories to customers in a high-end marketplace.

Justification of the Topic

Social networks have become the backbone of marketing in contemporary business. Almost all businesses operate on at least one social platform, through which they are able to communicate with both customers and suppliers. The core of social media and social networks in modern marketing denotes the role that technology plays in ensuring that a company reaches out to the targeted people. Through these media, organizations can also get information regarding the emerging trends and development in their industry. As a result, it is very important that active steps are taken, to train employees that are responsible for the marketing products of a company via social networks.

Value of the Research

The research will help businesses identify the best ways to empower employees and ensure that they are proficient in using social networks for marketing products of a company. It will also suggest business owners how to develop a clear strategy of investing in social media marketing and make their businesses use opportunities of the media for effective marketing and selling.

Research Questions

The proposed study will be guided by the following research questions:

1. In what ways has social media impacted the modern marketing strategies adopted by businesses?
2. What are the steps undertaken by businesses to promote the effective use of social media to market products to different customers?

Research Objectives

1. To identify social networks used by businesses for marketing their products.
2. To evaluate the strategies undertaken by businesses to train employees in marketing via social media.
3. To highlight the challenges that businesses are likely to encounter when marketing via social networks.

Literature Review "Social Media in Marketing"

The revolutionary effects brought by social media can be seen in the example of small businesses relying on the networks in marketing their products and services. The use of social networks in marketing has meant that markets have grown smaller in terms of reach (Brown 2010, p. 20). As such, businesses are able to create new avenues for promoting their products and services at reduced cost and time. Using social networks also means that businesses can focus on targeted marketing as opposed to the traditional marketing practices that used to rely on random messages. The use of social networks in marketing means that businesses are able to develop deeper connections with their stakeholders and suppliers and also communicate with targeted consumers (Kirkpatrick 2012, p. 34). The advancement in technology coupled with great innovation and creativity has meant that today, businesses can advertise not only via conventional media such as radio and television but also via the Internet, on which customers with a special interest in the product can be found. Since the launch of the first social networks on the World Wide Web, social media marketing has become an ever-developing mainstream. In fact, more than 80 percent of businesses operate at least one social media channel that aims at marketing (Merrill et al. 2011, p. 18). The amount of time spent on such advertisement and marketing has also increased with businesses looking for better ways to help their employees become proficient marketers on the Internet.

One of the factors that have prompted the availability and demand for social media as marketing channels is the fact that the implementation costs are relatively not very high. Furthermore, many employees are proficient users of modern social technology and media; therefore, they are able to use these tools for marketing. The decision to take marketing online is also informed by the number of potential customers who are likely to be landed (The Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, 2013). The other advantage is that these platforms allow businesses to reach directly out to the clients that are looking for specific information and products. As observed by Jaakkola, Linna, Henno, and Makela (2011, p. 45), social media and social networking have become valuable sources of customers for businesses looking to increase their sales, improve brand awareness, and attract a whole lot of clients. According to the survey by Swamynathan et al. (2008, p. 19), the majority of businesses using social media for marketing their products and services are primarily looking forward to engaging new customers. Social media and networks have become a valuable place where companies can easily generate leads and establish referrals, as well as drive their brand awareness agenda.

Before the advent of social media, businesses found it difficult to reach the clients located hundreds of miles away. Modern companies are now implementing a number of strategies through online platforms for marketing their products and services. These strategies include having branded fan pages that establishing the presence on popular Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. These market players also use social media for reacting and respond to negative feedbacks and rumors that would be costly to the business if the marketing was done offline. Through social media, businesses can communicate intended messages to the general public, reach shareholders, customers, investors, and regulatory bodies with the information. This process would be costly and time-consuming if traditional marketing approaches were applied.

As it was established by the study conducted by Hartline, Mirrokni, and Sundararajan (2008, p. 25), using social media can also aid a business in improving its employment practices especially in terms of hiring and promoting personnel. Finally, different companies use social media for effective interaction with customers by not only communicating different messages to them but also receiving their feedback. The report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services (2014, p. 12) indicated that the main role of social media is to generate a conversation with customers by gathering relevant information and using it to improve the services they offer. The previous research showed that creating lasting networks through traditional marketing was an uphill task that consumed a sizeable part of companies’ budgets. According to Kirkpatrick (2012, p. 19), social media has transformed the way businesses communicate with their clients and sell their products. Nevertheless, such transformation must be well controlled and managed in order to avoid any adverse effects on the image and brand of the market player (Mangold & Faulds 2009, p. 59). While these crucial benefits are brought by social media, there is a risk that businesses must consider when deciding to resort to online marketing. These risks include the dangers of infringing copyrights, having to deal with negative comments from disgruntled customers, and leaking information that may be gathered by competitors and used against the company.

As stated by Kim and Ko (2012, p. 480), it is also important for online marketers to ensure that they understand the copyright and other protected material in order to avoid any legal battles with the copyright owners of the content posted on their social media profiles. In order to avoid this issue, businesses are putting in place strategies to empower appropriate employees through training. The training aims to enhance the skills of the employees responsible for marketing the company via social media (Kaplan 2012, p. 264). Many businesses have regular training programs that aim to acquaint employees with any emerging practices and trends in online marketing. It is a costly venture, in which business owners must decide to invest. The results can be major depending on how proficient online marketers are in implementing appropriate strategies.

According to the analyzed literature review, social media has become an integral part of modern marketing; therefore, more and more businesses are striving to market their products through different social platforms. Consequently, the benefits that these businesses reap far surpass those from conventional marketing such as advertising in print and on the radio. However, there should be a clear strategy for online marketing in order to avoid the potential dangers of ruining the reputation of a company or engaging in a legal battle concerning copyright materials. While these risks can be avoided, businesses must have coherent training programs in order to empower appropriate employees and ensure that they conform to the high standards when marketing online. The use of social media in marketing provides companies with opportunities to create networks, ensure brand awareness, and reach out to potential and actual customers at a cheaper cost and in less time. Any market player can benefit immensely from the use of social platforms when there is a strategic approach to the way marketing is done. Empowering employees with the required skills and knowledge is one of the ways to enhance the strategic approach to online marketing. Prior to considering any social media strategy, it is essential that businesses understand the options available at the moment and required costs so that the process is focused on enhancing the business activities of the organization.

Method

In the proposed study, the researcher will use a quantitative approach to collecting and analyzing the data. The first step will be the evaluation of published material on social media marketing from companies and business owners; it will allow determining contemporary trends and strategies that have been employed by different entities to market their products and services. The research approach to be used in the proposed study will also involve face-to-face interviews with the marketing team of an organization that sells fashion and fast-moving products.

Research Design

In this study, the researcher proposes to use a quantitative approach with a literature review for the collection of data from selected respondents. There will be an interview session with the chosen participants concerning the strategies that have been implemented by the business in order to ensure effective online marketing. The use of questionnaires in the interview is advantageous because it will allow the researcher to seek clarification if required, and observe non-verbal communication from the respondents (Creswell 2012, p. 15). However, this approach is costly and time-consuming and may require a lot of effort and resources. There will also be an online survey for a selected group of participants who may not be easily reached. Online surveys are advantageous because they can be used to reach a wider span in a shorter time. However, in this case, the researcher will not be able to get any additional clarification and follow how the respondents choose answers to the asked questions. The study will be conducted using a positivist approach, according to which, the researcher chooses participants with an assumption that they have used some form of social media among their marketing tools (Chaston 2015, p. 17). These assumptions will be formulated in terms of hypotheses on how businesses implement different strategies to make use of online social platforms when they are marketing goods to their clients. Interpretivism will be applied when analyzing the collected data in order to ascertain that businesses use social media.

Data Collection

The data collection will be performed via two approaches. The first approach is the use of questionnaires that will be distributed to the selected participants. The participants will be selected based on the set criteria, for example, whether they worked or are working in the marketing department and whether they passed any training during the past year on how to use social media to market various products (Chaston 2015, p. 23). The second approach will be a face-to-face interview with the head of the marketing department of the selected company. This approach will be used for communicating with the manager of the marketing department only in order to cut down on the time and resources required for collecting and analyzing the required information. A bulk of the data will be collected via the questionnaire. The researcher will distribute 100 questionnaires to the selected participants. The focus group research is chosen as a method of collecting data most appropriate for this study since most respondents are marketers who work independently and gathering them in groups might be challenging (Hair et al. 2015, p. 75). The most appropriate method of data collection will be the use of questionnaires and interview with the head of the marketing department.

Using a quantitative approach will require the researcher to collect factual and observation data through the scientific method. The process will allow the researcher to make deductions regarding the use of social media in marketing and the steps implemented to enhance online marketing. During this process, only quantifiable data will be collected and analyzed using the methods chosen by the researcher (Dillman, Smyth & Christian 2000, p. 50). The advantage of using this approach is that it will enable the researcher to conclude what strategies have been implemented for promoting online marketing. It will allow the researcher to give accurate recommendations based on the reliable findings of the study with regard to the existing strategies and their performances.

Ethics, Validity, Reliability, and Resource Requirements

Marketing requires concentration and focus. For this reason, the researcher will ensure that frames for an interview with the marketing manager are kept in order to avoid any time wastage. The interview will be scheduled to take 30 minutes max. The questionnaires will be both structured and unstructured to allow for the collection of valid and reliable data. The researcher will compare the responses from the respondents with the findings in the published documents and scholarly materials in order to establish the reliability of the collected data (Creswell 2012, p. 12). The researcher requires finances to the tune of 5,000 dollars to carry out the entire study. The funds will be used for printing questionnaires, employing two assistants that will reach selected participants and analyzing the data provided by them.

The respondents will be informed about their rights including the possibility not to answer any question that they deem to violate their company’s policies or work ethics. They will also be provided with privacy including remaining anonymous throughout the study. In this way, the researcher will not be able to pin down certain responses to some participants.

Limitation of the Study

This study proposes to use only one business entity to investigate its social media marketing strategies. Since businesses operate in different industries, it might be difficult to make general conclusions that are applicable to all.

Conclusion

The proposed study will focus on the use of social media in marketing. Specifically, the study will seek to identify the ways, through which social media impacts marketing strategies of businesses and the steps undertaken by companies to promote effective use of these tools for successful marketing. In order to achieve the set objectives, the researcher will employ a quantitative approach to collecting data, having previously conducted a literature review on the subject of study. Interviews and questionnaires will be used for collecting data from appropriate participants. During the process of data collection, the researcher will employ relevant strategies that will ensure the reliability and validity of the findings. The confidentiality of the participants will also be upheld. Finally, the researcher will follow a defined time plan from identifying the topic to making a summary and conclusions.